False evidence

Chapter 381 The White 'Medical Visit Form'

Who does he want to see?

I doubted I had heard correctly.

He said he wanted to see Tong Jiawen.

Gao's tone also revealed doubt.

That's because he had heard me mention Tong Jiawen before, and knew that Tong Jiawen didn't belong to this era, and might even be a character I created due to my 'schizophrenia'.

I hesitated for a moment, then said, "I'll go over now."

I had just finished washing up when I heard someone cursing and swearing coming from the front.

As I entered the house, I saw Grandpa returning with breakfast.

"Sir, who are you angry with?" Pidan asked cautiously as he took the breakfast.

The old man, puffing out his beard and glaring, said, "Who else could it be? It's none other than that old codger Chen San!"

"Chen San is here again?"

Erpang and I both looked outside at the same time.

"Don't bother looking, they've already left!"

Grandpa lit a pipe, glanced at the two of us, and took a piece of paper from his pocket and threw it on the table.

The card looks the same as the black sticker from last time, with a hand-drawn piece of dead wood on the cover, only it's white.

"A blank invitation!"

Erpang once said that the posts in Kumutang are divided into three types: red, black, and white. Red posts are for treating the living, black posts are for dealing with the dead, but Ye didn't say what white posts represent.

I picked up the post, and as soon as I opened it, a piece of paper fell out.

I caught it with my bare hands, and was taken aback when I looked at it.

On a piece of cardstock about the size of a regular photograph is a portrait drawn in charcoal.

Looking at the post itself, there wasn't a single word on it.

Erpang asked his grandfather, "What does just a picture mean?"

The old man didn't answer him, but just puffed on his pipe with a gloomy face.

Knowing my grandfather's temper well, I knew he was really angry, so I quickly told Pidan to go to the kitchen to get a dish of peanuts and cut two preserved eggs.

I took a half-empty bottle of baijiu and a small cup from the cabinet and poured a cup for Grandpa.

The old man downed the whole thing in one gulp, and only then did his tightly furrowed brows relax a little.

That's when I asked him what the special significance of the white slip was.

The old man said in a deep voice, "A red invitation saves a life, a black invitation sends away a soul, and a white invitation—sends a person away."

"Send this person from the picture? Where to send it?" Erpang asked.

"Send him to meet the King of Hell!"

I sensed something was off about Grandpa's tone and asked, "Not a dead ghost? Is he alive?"

The old man nodded.

I couldn't help but shudder. "Sending a living person to meet the King of Hell, isn't that murder?"

The old man raised his voice and cursed, "That's right! Those bastards are truly despicable. Don't they know what era we live in? How could they still send out such a mess? That old geezer Chen San is even worse. I expected him to send another invitation, but I didn't expect him to throw such a hot potato at me!"

Erpang glared at him and said, "Master Yao, we can't do anything illegal."

The old man shook his head and said, "Since we've sent out invitations, we have to get to work."

"How can that be?" Pidan finally couldn't help but say, "Murder is punishable by death!"

"Yes, it's only right to pay back debts and to pay for murder with one's life."

Grandpa sighed, "Ever since the Kumu Hall came into being, those who are sent to the White Post Office are practically being given a death warrant." I also sighed, "Alas, it seems I really have to arrange your funeral this time."

The old man downed another cup of wine, picked up a few peanuts and put them in his mouth. After chewing them for a couple of times, he heard a crunch.

The old man opened his mouth and spat out a large tooth stained with blood, a rare bitter smile appearing on his face:

"I'm old and useless now. Third son, it seems my time has truly come. You've just settled down in this city and aren't wealthy. You're not my own grandson, so there's no need for you to spend money on me. Don't bother with any ceremonies, just scatter my ashes."

Hearing the old man say that, I panicked a little. "Don't talk nonsense, I was just teasing you. It's just a lost tooth, we'll get a stainless steel one later, it's so strong it can crack a metal bean!"

The old man shook his head slightly and reached for the invitation on the table.

I hurriedly snatched the post and the portrait, thought for a moment, and asked:
"If a blank notice is sent, does that mean we have to do the work? Can't we return it?"

"Refund? Refund to whom?"

The old man seemed to hesitate, then after a moment lit another pipe, took two deep drags, and said:
"I didn't tell you what a 'white notice' meant before because the last time the Kumu Hall received one was sixty-three years ago. That time, it was my father who received it. According to the rules, the person in the portrait on the notice had to die. He killed the person in the portrait, and he was arrested by the authorities and shot..."

I said, "I have two questions. First, what would happen if the person in the portrait didn't die? Second, is there any rule about when the person in the portrait should die?"

"I know what you're thinking, but trying to be clever won't work on this."

The old man was silent for a moment before continuing, "From the moment the white invitation is received, the fate of the person receiving the invitation and the person destined to die are already intertwined. As long as the person in the portrait doesn't die, the person who received the invitation will lose a year of their lifespan!"

I couldn't help but curse, "That's fucking bullshit!"

I wouldn't lie about something like this, but killing the person in the portrait would be breaking the law. If I don't kill them, the person who accepted the invitation will have their lifespan shortened.

I was thinking that the white post was just meant to kill someone, but if there was no time limit, then we could just wait for the other person to die of old age.

But if the person in the painting lives for one day, the person who accepts the invitation will lose one year of their lifespan. So how long can the person who accepts the invitation last?

Even if you could live for eight hundred years like Peng Zu, you still wouldn't last more than three years!

Now I finally understand why Grandpa cursed Chen San, saying he was a monster who couldn't be beaten.

I put the post in my pocket, grabbed my backpack and put it on, then took two fried dough sticks out of the bag.

"Where are you going?!" Pidan grabbed me.

Erpang also stood up: "Are you really going to kill someone?"

I took a big bite of the fried dough stick and nodded, "Right! I'll go find Gao He right now and ask him to help me find the person. Once we find them, we'll just stab the target to death with the fried dough stick!"

“I’ll go with you,” Pidan said, pulling me back.

I had no choice but to say, "You really believe I would kill someone? I've arranged to meet Brother Gao at the hospital!"

To convince Pidan that I was telling the truth, I simply called Gaohe again.

Only after Pidan meticulously checked with Gao He did he allow me to leave.

When passing by the monkey's clinic, the monkey blocked his way.

He held his phone in one hand and put his other arm around my shoulder, saying, "Going out for a drive? Perfect timing, I need to take care of some business at the hospital in the city, give me a ride."

I rolled my eyes: "Just spoke to Pidan on the phone? She told you to come with me?"

The monkey was taken aback: "How did you know?"

I pointed to his chest. "Even if you really want to go out, at least change out of your white coat first?"

I drove to the hospital and met Gao He in the outpatient hall.

I asked, "How is the old man now?"

"He's not in any life-threatening danger, but he's really too old. After all this, he's completely exhausted and can't get out of bed yet."

Gao He told me that Jiang Youzheng and Jiang Dahai had each confessed to their crimes. Jiang Dahai's girlfriend, Zeng Yuwen, was pregnant but miscarried on the day she was admitted to the hospital. The reason was severe depletion of her physical functions, which should be related to her disguising herself as a corpse and walking from the funeral home to the factory.

"In addition, Jiang Dahai and Zeng Yuwen both have a bad habit of using illegal drugs. That factory was their 'headquarters' where they gathered people to do drugs. One of these people liked to eat dog meat, and since there were stray dogs around, they put ham sausages laced with poison in the factory. The old beggar was poisoned because he ate the poisoned ham sausage."

(End of this chapter)